The Dunedin Consort presents the premiere recording of Mozart scholar David Black’s new 2013 edition of Süssmayr's completion of Mozart’s Requiem. In keeping with several other Dunedin projects, this provides the opportunity to re-imagine what this work may have sounded like at its very first performance. To this end, the recording will be the first not only to use this new edition, but also to present the work using forces close in style and scale to those at the first performances.

Herbert von Karajan’s 1975 Mozart Requiem is of the grand ceremonial type with large choral forces and full orchestra accompaniment–all of which sounds quite massive compared to more recent period-style performances.

1791: a busy year for Mozart who, when he received a commission for a Requiem, was already working on Die Zauberflöte and had a deadline to deliver La clemenza di Tito. Everyone knows what happened next: the commission postponed, exhaustion and death, a work left unfinished and which, after several composers were approached, was finally completed by Süssmayr. This version gradually became established as the closest to Mozart’s intentions, but is not free of faulty part-writing and orchestration. In 2016 a young French composer, Pierre-Henri Dutron, persuaded René Jacobs to perform his own revision of the Requiem completed by Süssmayr. This new version was created with great success in a series of five concerts around Europe in November 2016. We now present its first studio recording, released exclusively on harmonia mundi.

During his last years in Vienna Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed only three liturgical works: the short 'Ave Verum Corpus' and two unfinished masterworks: the 'Mass in C minor' and the 'Requiem' in D minor. Most of his sacred oeuvre was written at an early age in the conservative city of Salzburg. The 'Requiem' from 1791 is stylistically far removed from that early church music and suits the concert hall better than the church.

1791: a busy year for Mozart who, when he received a commission for a Requiem, was already working on Die Zauberflöte and had a deadline to deliver La clemenza di Tito. Everyone knows what happened next: the commission postponed, exhaustion and death, a work left unfinished and which, after several composers were approached, was finally completed by Süssmayr. This version gradually became established as the closest to Mozart’s intentions, but is not free of faulty part-writing and orchestration.

1791: a busy year for Mozart who, when he received a commission for a Requiem, was already working on Die Zauberflöte and had a deadline to deliver La clemenza di Tito. Everyone knows what happened next: the commission postponed, exhaustion and death, a work left unfinished and which, after several composers were approached, was finally completed by Süssmayr. This version gradually became established as the closest to Mozart’s intentions, but is not free of faulty part-writing and orchestration.

Between 1961 and 1986, Herbert von Karajan made three recordings of the Mozart Requiem for Deutsche Grammophon, with little change in his conception of the piece over the years. This recording, from 1975, is, on balance, the best of them. The approach is Romantic, broad, and sustained, marked by a thoroughly homogenized blend of chorus and orchestra, a remarkable richness of tone, striking power, and an almost marmoreal polish. Karajan viewed the Requiem as idealized church music rather than a confessional statement awash in operatic expressiveness. In this account, the orchestra is paramount, followed in importance by the chorus, then the soloists. Not surprisingly, the singing of the solo quartet sounds somewhat reined-in, especially considering these singers' pedigrees. By contrast, the Vienna Singverein, always Karajan's favorite chorus, sings with a huge dynamic range and great intensity, though with an emotional detachment nonetheless. Perfection, if not passion or poignancy, is the watchword. The Berlin orchestra plays majestically, and the sound is pleasingly vivid.

Thank you Kathleen Battle for making another masterful recording.Mozart's requiem is an excellent work,and this particular version is well recorded too.I just wish mozart wrote more music for the soprano to sing in his requiem.I must say that Verdi's requiem is the greatest ever composed,but thus far of all the requiems i've listened to,mozart's requiem must come in second.Mozart,you go boy!!Kathleen,you go girl!!!! Ps,requiems should be listened to especially on rainy evenings & nights with some introspective thoughts.Perhaps,mozart is now composing an anti-requiem for the afterlife..

The Mozart Requiem is one of the best-known sacred works in the classical repertoire. It was the composer's last work, and he left it unfinished at his death. British conductor Roger Norrington, a pioneer of authentic performing practice, and an outstanding group of singers present Duncan Druce's version of the Requiem, based on the latest Mozart research, together with other moving choral works.

This unique performance of Mozart's great Requiem took place on 5 December 1991, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer's death. Conducted by maestro Sir Georg Solti. Mozart's music was performed as an integral part of the liturgy for which it was originally intended, rhe special taking place in the magnificent setting of St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, where Mozart's funeral rites were said on 6 December 1791.